


Sinking Slowly

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bathrooms, M/M, they sort of define the relationship, unsuccessful DTR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 02:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Haknyeon barely avoids getting dumped but his night somehow doesn't get much better from there





	Sinking Slowly

**Author's Note:**

> nobody asked (not even me) but i provided.... something

“We need to talk.”

It's as cliché as anything and for all the tension in Hyunmin’s face Haknyeon is glad to have been given a warning like this. 

His friends were right and Kevin had been particularly morose when informing Haknyeon that all the things he liked about this something with Hyunmin signalled the ending rather than the beginning of anything. Even Jaehyun had told Kevin to shut up and had assured Haknyeon that he would beat Hyunmin up if this truly turned out to be the case. It is a shame, because Haknyeon quite likes Jaehyun and he doesn't think he will be forgiven if anything untoward happens to Jaehyun’s face as he fights for Haknyeon's honour. At least thinking about that gives Haknyeon a starting point when he attempts to pretend that a talk at a time like this wouldn't bother him. 

Haknyeon really had thought things were going well right up until a few seconds ago. They had gone out for a cooking class taster session and seen a really terrible acoustic set at the café they ended up at when they wanted somewhere else to just sit and pass the time. The evening had been so nice and Haknyeon had been hoping for something as simple and open-ended as a kiss goodbye but now Hyunmin is looking awkward and Haknyeon supposes he had better thank Kevin for the heads up. 

Only, Haknyeon finds that as soon as Hyunmin starts to talk his insides burn histamine hot and this is something he really can't endure. 

“These past few weeks that we have spent together have been really fun-”

“Oh no, hold on.”

“What is it?” Somehow Haknyeon feels bad that Hyunmin is so alarmed by his interruption but there is no way he doesn't feel worse for himself. He lets Hyunmin sweat it out for a few seconds, much in the same way Hyunmin has let Haknyeon freeze his toes off right outside his front door to have this conversation. 

“It's nothing big. Just that I am about to start crying. I just don't want you to feel bad and take it back,” Haknyeon says. He thinks he sounds quite cheerful and maybe that is why Hyunmin’s alarm grows exponentially. 

“You're going to cry?”

“I am just a crybaby or something. It doesn't mean that I can't accept what you're saying. It's fine.”

“Right,” Hyunmin says. “You haven't started crying yet so that's good, right?”

“Does it matter? You should just say what you have to. Quickly so that it hurts less.”

Hyunmin opens his mouth but struggles with some function of speech. He gives up and closes his mouth. He frowns up at Haknyeon. It is a shame he is so committed to being dizzyingly darling even at a time like this. 

Haknyeon shan't forget him in a hurry. 

“I don't think I want to say it anymore.”

Haknyeon is definitely going to cry. Or he is definitely crying already. He is hoping that Hyunmin can't tell but he doesn't think he is that lucky. His voice is clotting in his throat and what words he manages to get out sound very wobbly. “You should say it anyway. Hurry, Hyunmin, I don't mind!”

“You do mind,” Hyunmin accuses. That is quite rich of him when Haknyeon has every right to mind the fact that he has tried to make sure Hyunmin had a fun time yet Hyunmin doesn't even have the good grace to invite him inside to dump him in private. Haknyeon sniffs loudly and Hyunmin dithers uselessly. “I won't say it now.”

“Please, just say it.”

“Why would I? Why are you so upset already?”

Haknyeon is going to have to leave all of this out when he tells Sunwoo later. He might get some sympathy from Eric but Hyunjun will somehow persuade Sunwoo to see the funny side of this long before Haknyeon can. He just wants Hyunmin to get it over with so he can mope in peace for a while. Telling Hyunmin that would be too easy for him Hyunmin should have just as difficult a time saying it if he is going to make Haknyeon cry like this (admittedly Hyunmin hasn't yet fulfilled his part in Haknyeon's tears so this is just strange and he can’t yet take any of the blame). 

“Wouldn’t you be upset?” Haknyeon asks. He needs to prompt Hyunmin to get this over with somehow. It doesn’t seem to be working. 

“I don’t know,” Hyunmin says. “Can I hug you?”

“Why would you hug me? That will just confuse things!”

“You’re sad!” Hyunmin flaps. “And I’m already confused.”

This isn’t anything new. Hyunmin had spent the majority of the cooking lesson confused and attempting to swap their white sauce failures with the couple at the station beside them who appeared to be naturals at cooking. But that was a few hours ago when Haknyeon was laughing and thinking it all very funny and now Haknyeon is beginning to wish he had never bothered putting so much thought into these past few weeks if he was only going to feel like this. 

“Just say it, Hyunmin. You’re the one who wants to talk so you should just do that.”

“Are you sure?” Hyunmin looks like he wants Haknyeon to say he isn’t sure so Haknyeon tries his hardest to look like he is very sure. Hyunmin sighs but his body holds onto every joule of irritation. “I’ll make it quick then. I just wanted to let you know that I have really liked being able to hang out with you like this. And I wanted to know if you were interested in being exclusive. But I guess not.”

“Exclusive?”

“Uh. Yeah.” Hyunmin looks as though he wishes he had never brought this up and even though this isn’t what Haknyeon was expecting (unless of course it means something different to his assumption) he also wishes Hyunmin had never brought this up. There isn’t a purpose if this really is what Haknyeon is understanding. 

“What do you mean by exclusive?”

“Only seeing each other?” Hyunmin sounds unsure. Clearly neither of them know but it looks like it is time to learn things that they would rather not. 

Haknyeon presses against the damp heat of his eyes and, against his better judgement, asks, “Have you been seeing other people?”

Maybe that is what Haknyeon should have been doing all along instead of slipping right into this current of like and fancy and being swept further out than he wanted. He should have been looking out for all those other fish that could have prevented him from floundering in this dense uncertainty. But Haknyeon isn’t sure that any amount of flighty flow could have saved him from this. 

Hyunmin looks like he needs saving too but for distinctly different reasons. He can’t even scull his way through the shallows and he will end up sinking into abyssopelagic stasis. That makes two of them. 

“I haven’t been seeing other people. I just wanted to… well I was hoping you weren’t. Are you interested in just us?”

Haknyeon isn’t sure. He’s crying still but mostly because he’s confused rather than anything else. He’d thought this is how things had been all along. Just the two of them. “Are you saying you think I have been going out with other people?”

“Haven’t you?” Hyunmin asks. Haknyeon doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t think he should have to answer that. It is a strange thing to assume. Hyunmin goes on assuming strange things and adds, “I’m sure lots of people are after you. I just wanted to ask if you could pick me. Maybe.”

“Don’t you think I picked you from the start? I asked you out first! I have picked you.”

“Oh,” Hyunmin says. “Cool. Then I guess that’s good. I’m glad we talked.”

“I’m not!”

“You’re not?”

Of course Haknyeon isn’t glad about this conversation. “I thought you were going to dump me! And you’ve said all this to me!”

“I didn’t dump you,” Hyunmin says hopefully. “I shouldn’t have made you upset. But I wasn’t sure. I want to have more fun with you. I want to make sure we're both having the same kind of fun.”

“Well I was having the ‘I only like you’ sort of fun. Apparently you were having different thoughts.”

“I was having that sort of fun too. And now we both know. That's good.”

“It's not good at all. We're fighting on your doorstep for the whole world to see.”

“Fighting?” Hyunmin asks. He doesn't push that question any further and instead opens his arms to reach out for Haknyeon. “Come here.”

“I don't want to hug you, I'm upset,” Haknyeon sniffs as he shuffles forward and settles into Hyunmin’s arms. Instead of pointing out the contradiction he holds Haknyeon tighter. 

“I had just worried for a long time. My friends said something about there being a lot of people who like to spend time with lots of people. And we have so much fun that I was worried that I was thinking we were doing something different.”

“I don't even know what you're trying to say.”

Hyunmin sighs and says, “I was scared that I was the only one who wanted us to be a serious thing. “

This has always been serious. Haknyeon sags into Hyunmin more. He’s still mad and he wants to yell at Hyunmin for scaring him like this but he supposes Hyunmin has been feeling troubled too. And Haknyeon thinks he’s angry about that too. There must have been something that Hyunmin interpreted incorrectly but Haknyeon can’t think of and instances of culpability. 

They’ve been on a fair few dates but each time has been fun. They have tasted wine and taken dance lessons and done all manner of things Haknyeon wouldn’t have bothered looking on Groupon to try out. Nothing about this could have hinted that Haknyeon was doing this with other people. 

“I’m so mad at you,” Haknyeon grumbles. “You have to promise to make it up to me because you have been thinking such horrible things.”

Hyunmin makes an attempt at starting to get back on Haknyeon’s good side and invites him inside. At least Haknyeon can start to clean himself up when Hyunmin sneaks him past his housemates into the tiny bathroom. 

The sink looks way too close to the bathtub and the basin is even overhanging in a way that must cause accidents. There is a small gap between the sink and the toilet but there is room for little else besides the toilet brush and the assortment of bleach bottles which scatter like pins when Haknyeon accidently kicks them. A brighter light might make the room look larger or it might only bring more attention to how puffy and blotchy Haknyeon's face is. 

“I look so ugly,” Haknyeon grumbles when he finally manages an assessment of his reflection in the grimey mirror above the sink. He yanks too much toilet paper off the roll to mop up his face but he doesn’t care about that. Having to buy more toilet roll is the least Hyunmin should have to do. 

“When have you looked anything close to ugly in your life?” Hyunmin asks from where is is perched on the edge of the bathtub. 

“Right now after I have been crying because the guy I thought wanted to be my boyfriend asked me to stop meeting other people behind his back. Which I was never doing in the first place.”

Hyunmin rests his hand on Haknyeon’s hip and smiles very sweetly up at him but he ruins whatever he is going for when he says, “Can you be mad at me more quietly please? Eunki has unfortunately good hearing and Kiwon says I can’t have guests over without asking.”

“Is that rule specifically aimed at you?” Haknyeon grumbles. 

“Yes,” Hyunmin admits as he drops his hand to his lap. “They’d like you if they met you but they don’t really trust people I bring over.”

“Why? Are all your friends as mean as you?”

“I really am sorry,” Hyunmin says. “That’s the last time I will apologise.”

“That’s the first time you apologised!”

“I said be quiet!” 

Haknyon should have run away as soon as he suspected he was going to get dumped. Hyunmin telling him to be quiet isn’t at all helpful and Haknyeon is maybe being immature about things when he turns on the tap and splashes water at Hyunmin from the sink. 

Hyunmin leaps up and reaches around Haknyeon to get at the sink. “Move so I can splash you too!”

“No. You’re mean so only you get to be splashed.”

“Well I think you’re mean,” Hyunmin grunts as he finally pushes Haknyeon out of the way. Haknyeon barely avoids crashing his face into the wall but that is only because his shin thumps dully on the toilet. “I only wanted to have a normal conversation about whatever this relationship is and you’re trying to make me feel bad.”

“You didn't even have to try to make me feel bad,” Haknyeon retorts even when Hyunmin is collecting handfuls of water and flicking them at him. “You’re making me wet and I have to go back outside and freeze and die!”

“Then don’t go.”

The realisation is glacial and Haknyeon wishes to sink away from this faster. So many other fish in so many other oceans and Haknyeon has taken too much notice of the shimmering of the good sides to this and got himself hooked on someone trying to reel him even closer with ease. Hyunmin does a lot with ease. He shouldn’t be able to even say something like this after tonight. 

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“You just said you’re not allowed guests over unless you ask. And why would I stay? I thought you were going to dump me.”

Hyunmin fiddles with the tap and switches it off carefully. He looks up at Haknyeon and says, “You don’t have to stay. I mean, you didn’t have to say yes when I asked you to only see me.”

“I wasn’t seeing anyone else anyway-”

“Listen, Haknyeon, I know you weren’t, just like I wasn’t going to dump you. But we couldn’t have known that without talking about it. So just say whatever. Tell me.”

Haknyeon doesn’t know whether he can say whatever. This is weird. He came inside because he looked like a mess and needed to sort that out but Hyunmin is smiling like this is a good night. 

“Why do you want me to stay over?”

“I don’t want you to leave here sad,” Hyunmin says. “I want you to be happy to see me next time.”

“I will be happy to see you,” Haknyeon grumbles. There is a hand towel hanging on a ring beside and Haknyeon takes it to dry Hyunmin’s hand. They don’t need to splash each other anymore. Hyunmin links his hand with Haknyeon’s and it feels like something close to comfort. 

“Do you promise?”

“Yes. I promise. You still want to go out with me, and even if you’re being mean to me you’re trying. I will want to see you.”

“I’m not being mean,” Hyunmin says. “But even if you call me mean a hundred times I will still be happy to see you.”

“What if I say it a thousand times?”

“That might hurt my feelings,” Hyunmin allows. But he's smiling so Haknyeon is tempted to call him mean nine hundred and ninety-nine times. 

Haknyeon shuffles Hyunmin out of the way and peers at himself through the toothpaste splatters on the mirror. He doesn't look too different to how he did when he came in here but Hyunmin is kind of silly and he's put some cheer into the high colour of Haknyeon's face. He meets Hyunmin’s eyes and says, “We should take things one step at a time. And just to let you know I am allowed to invite guests home.”

“Noted,” Hyunmin grins. “I am already looking forward to our first sleepover.”

Haknyeon smiles too and turns to look at Hyunmin without having to squint through layers of toothpaste and condensation marks. “Before that I think I will have to take you pyjama shopping.”

“Why?” Hyunmin asks, suddenly not caring to keep his voice down and letting his words echo from the close walls. “What's wrong with my pyjamas? You haven't even seen them!”

“I just have a feeling that they're not very good,” Haknyeon says. 

“Wow that's so rude. My pyjamas are amazing.”

“Describe them to me.” Haknyeon reaches an arm behind him and locates the taps in case this requires some splashing. 

“I don't need to. I sleep naked.”

“I knew it! You're not allowed to sleep in my bed if you're naked. I can't believe you.”

“You can't believe me? I didn't just insult your body,” Hyunmin huffs as he reaches for the door handle. “Before you leave I am going to show you my pyjamas and you're going to take your words back.”

“You just said that you sleep naked.”

Hyunmin doesn't reply and initially Haknyeon assumes it is because his brain is working because he has nothing to say. He wishes that were the case when he shakes Hyunmin’s shoulder enough to turn him around and see the chagrin on his face. He doesn't want to ask but what he is seeing in Hyunmin’s face is alarming so he must. “What is it?”

“The door won't open.”

“Very funny,” Haknyeon says drily as he grabs the handle and attempts to yank it. The door won't open. “Are we stuck in your bathroom or is this a joke I am missing?”

“We could laugh about it if you want,” Hyunmin suggests. He quickly realises this isn't a good answer and says, “The door does this sometimes. I can't even remember who said they were going to fix it but they just never did. But someone will come and get us eventually.”

Hyunmin sounds very optimistic but perhaps that is because he doesn't know that Haknyeon would bet the content of his (overdrawn if he is honest) bank account on the fact that Hyunmin was the person who said he would fix the lock. If Haknyeon wasn't certain before, Hyunmin as good as admits it when he says, “some days the bolt sticks and doesn't turn with the knob but that isn't very often. We can go weeks without it happening.”

“Why didn't you tell me that the lock was broken before you trapped me in here?”

“What were the chances of this happening? It was hardly worth mentioning.”

Haknyeon would beg to differ. 

“First you try to dump me and then you lock me in your bathroom! This is awful!”

“Neither of those things are close to being true,” Hyunmin says while Haknyeon batters the door and yells for help. He luckily thinks twice about reminding Haknyeon that the people he lives with might hear and he instead joins in making noise. 

They are calling for help for a suspiciously long time considering Hyunmin isn't allowed guests over and they can usually hear everything. Haknyeon doesn't even have long to feel ashamed for forgetting about technology because he is right back to where he was half an hour ago when it transpires that neither of Hyunmin’s housemates are home. 

“I suppose it was date night for all of us,” Hyunmin says as he taps his phone against his chin. 

“Didn't you tell them that we're trapped in here?”

“I didn't want to disturb them,” Hyunmin says quite considerately. Then just for the purposes of obfuscation adds, “and I don't want to get into trouble. They don't know you're here so it might still work out.”

“I know I'm here and you're definitely in trouble,” Haknyeon declares darkly. Hyunmin looks a bit helpless as he watches Haknyeon climb into the empty bathtub to sulk. 

Haknyeon can't very well die in here without letting someone in the outside world know of his plight. Sangyeon appears very sympathetic but his messages asking for more details are strange like he is still somehow laughing at Haknyeon. Kevin ignores the fact that he was wrong about Hyunmin’s intentions but immediately suggests Haknyeon dumps him when they get out of the bathroom. It occurs to Haknyeon that Kevin's default answer to things to any situation is someone getting dumped. Eric sounds like he thinks Haknyeon really will die and no amount of Sunwoo getting Jacob to reassure Eric otherwise helps. Chanhee and Younghoon both reach out to Haknyeon before he has the chance to scroll through his contacts to message them and it is nice being cared about like this. Juyeon also messages Haknyeon after hearing the situation from someone else but his advice telling Haknyeon to “just unlock the door” has him considering the merits of never speaking to him again. 

Haknyeon is bored so he shares his suffering with almost everyone he knows. His sisters both see the funny side and his mum tells Haknyeon his story sounds very nice, but he must forgive their lack of sympathy because they are family. He stops short of telling Euiwoong the situation because he is not family and Haknyeon thinks that somehow this is his fault. If Haknyeon wasn't friends with Euiwoong he wouldn't have had so much contact with Euiwoong's excessive friend Hyungseob who knows this really great guy who he would trust with his life (only Hyungseob neglected to mention the part where this great friend likes to dump people and then lock them in his bathroom forever more). It is definitely Euiwoong's fault that Haknyeon will starve to death in a bathroom. 

Haknyeon has been furtively eyeing the toothpaste tubes on the sink for a while and they are all the baking soda variety which wouldn't be as tiresome to eat as peppermint or spearmint, but the fullest tube is the formula for sensitive teeth. Haknyeon is not above exaggeration and claiming to have cried for the three days after Sangyeon accidentally bought home baking soda toothpaste for sensitive teeth. Even Haknyeon wouldn't be desperate to look to that for sustenance. 

Just to make sure he is making the right decision Haknyeon consults a few friends. Changmin doesn't understand the question but Sunwoo is a true friend and informs Haknyeon that he would rather he died than ate baking soda toothpaste (for sensitive teeth) after not even going two hours without food. He's right. A true survivor would have first considered the miserable looking candle perched on the window sill above the toilet. (Even Haknyeon isn't desperate enough to consider the shampoo and shower gel bottles clustered around the edge of the bath.) The candle is girthy and red and Haknyeon wonders whether it is scented. He thinks a sweet apple scent might make the candle into an acceptable meal but it looks like it has been in the bathroom for a while (Haknyeon distinctly remembers seeing dust gathered in the basin created as the wick burnt down weeks and months before) so that presents the possibility that it has an obnoxiously festive flavour like mulled wine or winter berry. 

Haknyeon is still considering the merits of eating the candle when he catches Hyunmin’s eye. He doesn't think he likes the look that greets him there. 

“What?”

“Nothing,” Hyunmin says (lies, because Haknyeon isn't a complete idiot) quickly. 

“There is obviously something the matter. What was it you said to me earlier? Something about just saying things?”

“Okay,” Hyunmin says slowly. He takes a breath that turns him very pink before he says, “I need the toilet.”

“Luckily for you we're locked in a bathroom and you're sitting on the toilet right now.”

“I'm not sitting  _ on  _ the toilet,” Hyunmin protests as though that doesn't perfectly describe his current position. “The lid is down. But anyway I can't go because you're in here.”

Haknyeon blinks. He doesn't follow. “Do you wait until everyone has left before you use public toilets?”

“No,” Hyunmin says through gritted teeth, face glowing hotter by the second. “I don't normally have to go number two with the guy I like sitting in the bath and watching me.”

Haknyeon turns his head away and focuses on a trail of black mould in the tile grouting around the bath. He wonders whether this is another something Hyunmin said he would take care of and then didn't. “I'm not watching you, see. I just happen to be in the same room.”

“I still can't go if you're in here.”

“I can't exactly go anywhere else, remember? This is something you should have thought about before locking me in here with you,” Haknyeon points out. He feels very bitter about things but for all the productive things he thinks he would be doing he might as well spend it sitting in Hyunmin’s bath. Not that he would admit that with a whole night in here looming ahead of him. 

“I didn't do this on purpose.”

“Yet here we are. I'm going to have to go at some point too. It isn't a big deal so you might as well just get it out of the way.”

Hyunmin makes a sound midway between a squeak and a harrumph. “Why don't you go first then?”

“I'm not going to force it when I don't need to go,” Haknyeon reasons. He is also feeling oddly comfortable in the bathtub and despite wondering whether the limescale encrusted shower head would drip on him it is yet to do so and he is feeling quite pleased with his choice to get in. “I don't think you can wait that long.”

“It's a number two, Haknyeon, I really don't want to do it in front of you.”

“Then don't. Let's try to take your mind off it.”

“But I need to go,” Hyunmin whines helplessly. 

“You're not even trying. Let's just talk. Or play a game. I'll ask a question and you answer it and then have a turn.”

“I think people tend to call that a conversation.”

“Alright, suit yourself,” Haknyeon says. 

“No, wait, please.”

Haknyeon suggested this but he can't think of a question immediately. Hyunmin makes an impatient sound and Haknyeon goes with the first half-formed question in his head. “What's your favourite food?”

“Haknyeon, this isn't taking my mind off anything. Don't you know what happens after eating?”

“That's not the first thing a normal person would think of. Just answer the question.”

“Lasagne.”

Haknyeon smiles tightly. That's what they tried to make during the cooking class. The answer came in a heartbeat but Haknyeon finds it very interesting. This isn't the first time Haknyeon has asked the question but it is the first time he's heard this answer. 

“You say something different every time. Why lasagne?”

“I thought we were taking turns asking questions.” When Haknyeon rolls his eyes Hyunmin says, “My favourite food is whatever I last ate with you.”

Haknyeon can't help but laugh at that. “You're shameless. How can you say something like that?”

“Clearly I do have some shame, Haknyeon!”

That's different. When Hyunmin talks he often hits on sentiments too often close to the right thing to say. That’s the sort of shame that Haknyeon would like Hyunmin to have so he can stop making Haknyeon sink deeper into this feeling of liking too much. It is too much to think about and Haknyeon tells Hyunmin to hurry up and ask his question. 

“Alright,” Hyunmin says. “Where do you want to go on our next date?”

“Somewhere far away from your house. Are you free tomorrow?”

“You want to see me tomorrow?”

“You have to answer my question before you ask me one,” Haknyeon says. But then he thinks about the question he asked in the first place and says, “Or the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be trying to remind myself what it is like to sleep in an actual bed.”

“You have the bath. I’m just sitting on the toilet.”

“I’m the guest.”

“You’re not technically allowed to be in here.”

Haknyeon slumps down in the bath and feels sulky again. He says, “You tried to dump me today.”

Hyunmin sighs. “I didn’t try to dump you. I like you. I wanted to ask you to be my boyfriend.”

“Well you didn’t,” Haknyeon huffs. He manages to sound annoyed even though he is feeling something horribly unannoyed. He glances at Hyunmin from the corner of his eye and sees him looking at a loss. Now he feels annoyed. He’s the reason Hyunmin looks sad. 

“Will you be my-”

Now Haknyeon is annoyed for more general reasons. “Don’t you dare ask me in here. Not when you’ve been complaining about not being able to go to the toilet in front of me.”

“I thought you were going to take my mind off it!” Hyunmin grumbles.

“You’re the one who keeps making me think about it. You’re even sitting on the toilet,” Haknyeon retorts. 

Hyunmin jumps up and climbs into the bath without giving Haknyeon enough warning to properly get out of the way. He complains the whole time Hyunmin finally tells him to move and they’re both squished too closely together after the bottles of shower gel around the edge of the bath have fallen on them both. At least the bottles aren’t full. Haknyeon could have sustained a lot of damage. Not that Hyunmin wedging himself into a space that doesn’t exist isn’t doing enough damage. 

“I won’t ask you then,” Hyunmin says. “Are you happy now?”

“No.”

“Luckily I have plenty of time to fix that before we get discovered.”

That doesn’t sound very lucky at all and Haknyeon really has to wonder how Hyunmin’s mind works. He sighs and makes himself as comfortable as possible Hyunmin will have to suffer with the tap end of the bath. He’ll never get to sleep like this. 

“Don’t close your eyes. What are you doing? I don’t want you to be unhappy,” Hyunmin says as he reaches for Haknyeon’s limp hand. 

“I’m sleeping. There’s no such thing as being unhappy.”

“You can sleep anytime,” Hyunmin grumbles. “We don’t get to see each other enough.”

“The you I see in my dreams isn’t going to lock me in a bathroom all night.” It is supposed to be a biting remark but Haknyeon can already hear Hyunmin smiling too easily.

“You have dreams about me?”

“Nevermind. I hope you don’t turn up in my dreams,” Haknyeon says. 

“I’m going to visit you in every dream you have from now on.”

“I think those would be called nightmares,” Haknyeon lies. 

“So you don’t want to see me tomorrow either? Or the day after tomorrow?”

Haknyeon sighs. He can’t take this for much longer. Hyunmin is too kind and too funny and even at a time like this he isn’t taking the bait. He’s just playing with Haknyeon’s hand and waiting. And Haknyeon can’t tell too many lies. “I never said that. You have to make things up to me the day after tomorrow.”

“Even if it is a nightmare?”

“I didn’t mean it,” Haknyeon sighs. “It won’t be a nightmare. It’ll be the best dream I can think of.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Hyunmin promises. He drops Haknyeon’s hand and says, “But I’m sorry I really do need to go. I think I might die.”

Haknyeon tries not to laugh. He squeezes his eyes more tightly shut and claps his hands over his ears. “I’ll sing too. Go, it’ll be like I’m not here at all.”

Haknyeon feels Hyunmin climb out of the bath and he already feels that he misses the discomfort of not being able to stretch out his legs. He can’t even think of any songs but he hums loudly and tunelessly and hopes Hyunmin can pretend he isn’t there. 

Haknyeon wonders how differently things could have gone if he weren’t here. He could have gone home and complained to Sangyeon about how he likes Hyunmin too much. That probably would have been very boring for Sangyeon who must have more important things going on in his life. Maybe being stuck in Hyunmin’s bathroom is a good thing. Haknyeon has spent most of this time being annoyed at Hyunmin but he’s somehow happy about that. Though it might just be the fact that he hasn’t actually been dumped (yet) as was speculated. 

It might be alright to stay like this and Haknyeon supposes it is good if he doesn’t know how to float his way through these feelings.

It isn’t that long before Hyunmin gets back into the bath and nudges Haknyeon’s legs out of the way. 

“I didn’t hear you wash your hands,” Haknyeon says as he peers over at Hyunmin. 

“You shouldn’t have been able to hear anything.”

“Did you go?”

“No.” 

Haknyeon thinks he might have sounded equally as morose if he was having the same problem. But Haknyeon is blessed with not having had all the opportunities for privacy as he has wanted growing up and there is only one toilet in the flat he shares with Sangyeon and has sometimes claimed to be too desperate to wait while Sangyeon is in the shower. Maybe he was subconsciously training for moments like this all along. Poor Hyunmin should have trained like this before but Haknyeon isn’t going to tell him that. 

“I am sure the time will fly by and you’ll be fine when I really am gone.” That works as being understanding and supportive. 

Hyunmin huffs and leans into Haknyeon’s chest and settles between his legs in a way that must not have been comfortable at all. “Can you hold me?”

“I already am,” Haknyeon muses. He holds Hyunmin tighter anyway and thinks he gets away with pressing a kiss to his crown. 

Haknyeon hasn’t asked, and Hyunmin hasn’t asked him either, but he thinks he is going to start telling people that Hyunmin is definitely his boyfriend. This certainly feels very boyfriendy and Haknyeon thinks he might be able to cope all night in the solid enamel of the bathtub. He probably won’t be able to walk properly in the morning and he might even consider getting a spine replacement but it is something he can cope with. 

By the time Hyunmin’s housemates get the bathroom door open Haknyeon wants a whole new skeleton.

 

**Author's Note:**

> please [tell me](https://twitter.com/SEpupppupp) how to write a fic without mentioning someone or something defecating


End file.
